The Bright Side of Going Dark

by Kelly Harms

“Oh dear,” she says sarcastically. “You wouldn’t be self-reporting your every purchase to an international conglomerate in exchange for a few pennies’ discount here and there?

Marla puts her arm around her daughter. “Not everything hard is worthwhile,” she says, and there is a smile in her voice. “Just most things,” replies my sister, and I realize that she is the hope I feel. “Like surviving.”

Then I breathe it all in. There are things you know you want in your life, that you know are good and right and true the moment you realize they exist. Things that you can only miss if you’re not paying attention.